Passionate about IP! Since June 2003 the IPKat weblog has covered copyright, patent, trade mark, info-tech and privacy/confidentiality issues from a mainly UK and European perspective. The team is David Brophy, Birgit Clark, Merpel, Jeremy Phillips, Eleonora Rosati, Darren Smyth, Annsley Merelle Ward and Neil J. Wilkof. You're welcome to read, post comments and participate in our community. You can email the Kats here

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Sunday, 5 September 2004

Ananova reports that British athlete Paula Radcliffe has been dropped from an advertising campaign for porridge because she doesn't fit the advertising slogan. The 30-year-old Olympic athlete, who was intended to sign the contract once she returned from Athens, was due to shoot a TV commercial for Quaker's Oatso Simple porridge this week, showing her winning a marathon after eating the cereal. The advertising slogan was to read: "It helps you go the distance." Quaker has however pulled out, after Radcliffe's poor showing at the Athens Olympics where she failed to finish both the marathon and the 10,000m. Radcliffe had been seen as the perfect celebrity to promote the cereal as she says porridge is her favourite pre-race meal.
A source linked to Quaker said:

"Although a contract was not in place, the whole advert had been verbally agreed between Paula's agent and Quaker, although it was made clear that it would only go ahead if Paula won the medal”.

But agent Sian Masterson said the idea was scrapped because Quaker couldn't get the script approved by the Broadcast Advertising Clearance Centre, which pre-vets commercials, because it contravened regulations.

The IPKat is sceptical of Sian Masterson’s statement and sympathises with Paula Radcliffe on the loss of a potentially lucrative product endorsement package. But never mind: here’s a tip. Win your next big race, Paula, then endorse any breakfast cereal that’s not porridge, using the slogan “I used to eat porridge, but now I’m a winner!”.